Audio Visual Insights for Web-Conferencing and Live Streaming

Microsoft & Skype for Business have posted several useful shortcuts and tips to make everyday users lives easier. We compiled a list of these tips and added our own that we think you will find useful. Skype for Business is already a simple, easy to use, video conferencing software. The familiar Skype "look and feel" integrated with the Office 365 and/or Lync unified communications platform is one of industries best.

Enjoy :)

1. Auto Accept

When you see an incoming invitation this is the easiest way to confirm you are able to attend. Simply press windows key and the "A" key at the same time and you will accept the calendar invitation.

2. Meet Now

Meet Now is the easiest way to launch an "ad-hoc" Skype for Business Meeting. Simply pressing "Alt" + "M" at the same time will launch a video call where you instantly start inviting contacts from your organization. This will pull up the Skype for Business client and a video meeting will be automatically set up and ready to start.

Skype Translate is revolutionizing the world of international business

In December last year, Skype launched its Translate app preview which will revolutionize video calling forever. We live in a technological world where everyone is connected with their friends, family and colleagues through social media and social networking apps. The only barrier that stops us from connecting with new people is language. Language is the biggest barrier in communication even though English is the most commonly spoken language, still more than half of the 7 billion people on this planet cannot communicate in English.

Skype for Business, Improved and Integrated with Office 365

Microsoft has replaced Microsoft Lync with the improved Skype for Business video conferencing software. Skype for Business is an improvement over Microsoft Lync while retaining the same popular features and adding new ones. Great news for professionals, Skype for Business offers new integrations with Office 365. There are three pricing plans now available for users – Business Online 1, Business Online 2 and Server 2015.

Whether or not buisness leaders are trying to use the best from each service or simply test un-traveled waters is beyond me. But the web video conferencing software providers who are making it must admit heavy video conferencing users use multiple platforms on a regular basis.

For example, a huge number of organizations are using Microsoft Lync for their internal video conferencing accompanied with a more "cloud friendly" service like GoToMeeting, WebEX or Zoom.US. It was this type of video conferencing experience that inspired the creation of our latest "Lync Meeting Room Control Software" product which integrates with native SDK's within Microsoft Lync (Skype for Business) and a unlimited amount of third party web conferencing software API's including Office 365.

It's worth noting that Bluejeans got this market right from the begining and made a business on providing interoperability features for companies that simply wanted the best flexibility options no matter the cost. But I think the majority of companies use a mix of different services by choice. I think they choose the services that reach out to them the most. A friend of mine from Citrix warmly referred to this "fact of life" as "Cross-Polination".GoToMeeting uses the same USB webcam technology as Skype does over at Microsoft. And Citrix would know a thing or two about the web conferencing market holding on to the big #2 "soft codec" position with GoToMeeting, second only to Skype, the #1 soft codec now also known as "Skype for Business."

Check out our slideshare demonstrating the software we feel is an ideal interface for organizations that are using Microsoft Lync coupled with another software like GoToMeeting, WebEX or Zoom.US. The CRS Lync Meeting Control Software was built to provide elegant control for Lync & MS Exchange plus add much needed features such as support for Google Calendar and 3rd party web conferencing applications like GoToMeeting, WebEX and Zoom.US.

So I won't go ranting and raving about our new software in this blog post (or any other). But I will let our detailed SlideShare & Video provide the latest updates on this exciting new software that integrates MS Lync, Exchange, Google Calendars, Office 365, GoToMeeting, WebEX and Zoom.US right out of the box! This is going to be a game changer! Perfect for anyone who uses Microsoft Lync (Skype for Business) and Office 365 regularly in their conference rooms. This software solves a problem we are passionate about at Conference Room Systems and that is Ease of Use. This software joins the native MS Lync experience with 3rd party video conferencing applications and calendar systems like GoToMeeting, WebEX and Google Calendars all into one global screen.

MS Lync Users,

After the huge success of our MS Lync Webinar which is still running we are adding a "Ol' Fashion MS Lync Camera Shoot Out" to demonstrate each camera one after the next. The set up is simple. A webinar style video conferencing meetings run by a computer attached to 6 of the top USB Pan Tilt Zoom cameras using a USB 3.0 Hub. Therefore we can provide on the fly USB camera switching in "Shoot Out". This has become a great way to demonstrate the differences side by side concerning: picture quality, field of view and optical zoom capabilities.

Anyone who has tried to keep in contact while saving money has needless to say watched, as conferencing solutions have gone from something that kinda-sorta-maybe could be considered a video call to high-quality, interactive discussions.